Daughter of the Tides, Servants of the Moon Book 2

At the fourth possible location of the missing pack, Essie kicked the stand for her motorcycle down and let it lean. Desert wolves tended to move often, and the temple records show six different possible locations for this one pack. Crested Mesa was where it was listed, or rather the pack house and homes were but the wolves were gone. In several houses, coffee was made, showers were still running, and beds were unmade. Like the wolves had just gotten up and walked away from their homes in their sleep.

Taking off her helmet she shook out her falsely copper curls. Ainsley had laughed silently at Essie when she had come home from the salon. Del had just shaken her head. Smirking, Essie remembered how Louis had gawked at her then glared at her hatefully as usual. She lit a cigarette as she waited for Nyall and Zane to catch up. Like most wolves, Nyall had taken to riding motorcycles like he had done it his whole life. Delilah had sent them out to investigate the reason she could no longer see two small packs in the desert southwest and check on a third, which was thriving, hidden in a gated mountain community, northeast of Vegas.

Essie exhaled and stretched in the hot air happily. She loved the heat, the hotter the better. Looking out at the desert terrain, she smiled. This could be home someday then she remembered, and her smile faded rapidly. She had seen her mate standing in a canyon, the air was so hot it rippled around him. His eyes shown like the sun above, like molten gold. He was so beautiful, and evil beyond anything she could ever imagine.

The sound of motorcycles had her turning her head. Zane got there first, and Essie took an opportunity to admire how the sun glistened off his dark muscled arms. Wrapped in espresso-colored leather vest and leather riding pants, Zane almost looked naked in the color. He grinned at her with a knowing half-smirk. Zane had never met his true mate, he said he knew she was already on the moon. He and Essie had a lot of potential and so they dabbled at being mates when they were on assignment together.

“So, this is the turn off to the canyon where the Ky’awe (water) Yachunne (moon) Pack lives. The road looks like it was made for dirtbikes or off-road jeeps. I don’t know how our street bikes will fair.” Essie scowled. “But we can try to ride.”

“Or go as our wolves,” Zane grinned.

Nyall pointed to an outcropping. “We could park the bikes over there.”

Zane nodded, and they pushed their bikes out of site. “Last one to the packhouse catches dinner.”

Essie laughed stuffing her biker leathers in her bike’s saddle box. “Screw that, there’s a 24-ounce porterhouse with my name on it and reservations at Omnia.”

“You love that place,” Zane chuckled as he said it.

“What’s Omnia?” Nyall asked.

Essie took one last puff off her cigarette before tossing it on the dirt. “You’ll see, and you’ll love it. But don’t tell Del.”

Her dark brown wolf stretched as it shook out its fur. She looked back, winked and took off running at a full sprint. Nyall and Zane had their fur on before she made it six steps and bolted after her. They ran through the high desert between the wind-worn sandstone outcroppings and down into a hidden box canyon with a waterfall at the far end. There were no sentries, so they slowed and sneaked up on the buildings. The adobe homes were all empty. There was something eerily familiar about this place, deja vu from her darkest visions.

Essie crept up to a door that was swinging open and closed. It was obvious animals had been in the home but the scents of the family who lived there were faded, mixed with dust and heat. She shifted and flipped a lightswitch up; the entry light flicked on. Turning it back off, she carefully moved through the house. Nothing was missing except the family that lived there. Stepping out on the porch, Zane and Nyall were both coming out of other homes. They met in the middle of the street and started toward the pack house.

Nyall’s head looked like it was on a pivot as his neck craned about. “Can ye smell the faint stench of wolf’s bane and rowen wood? It is the same smell that I used to find the witch the night my pack was attacked.”

Zane’s fists were clenched. “There was a urine spot in a closet in the house I checked. Like a pup tried to hide as his wolf then changed back to his human. It carried the taint of fear.”

“We need to check the packhouse saferoom, escape tunnel, and Alpha’s office,” Essie didn’t say anything more, but she could feel that her mate had been here and his mother, the witch.

Zane read her rigid posture immediately. “He took them, didn’t he?”

Essie gave him a hard glare and walked naked through the heat rippling off the road toward a large sand colored building. She went up the stairs and he turned to go down when she didn’t answer. “Let’s check around.”

Nyall and Zane searched the rooms and even the safe room and escape tunnel which lead to a stairway up behind the waterfall. Both of the protection spaces were open and dusty.

“They did nah come this way,” Nyall growled, looking through the waterfall out at the canyon. Zane shook his head, muttering a curse in a language Nyall had never heard before. There was no sign the wolves of the Water Moon Pack had fled. As with all the other missing packs, the wolves were just gone. They shifted back to their wolves and trotted cautiously back through the tunnel.

In the cool interior, she walked to the Alpha’s office. In the drawer of the desk was an old-fashioned appointment book. It was filled with random meetings about pack business and events. Each one had a check by it until three weeks earlier. A page was ripped out.

“Did you find something, Essie?” Zane asked from the door, signaling Nyall to stay where he was.

“I’m not sure.” Muttering, she gently rubbed a pencil over the page below the missing one. Then tipped the book in the light. “It looks like the Alpha had three appointments the day that is missing. He checked off the first one but the second one looks like… D… Roe or Rose, maybe. And it could be Alpha followed by H, I or E, then L and a squiggle… Honestly, their alpha has worse handwriting than Ketsu.”

Zane took the book and scrutinized it. Then he looked at her carefully. “Close your eyes, Essie. Can you feel him like you did at Darkwood? Can you smell him?”

Essie trembled, she shook her head. “I don’t want to.”

“He’s your true mate. You’re an oracle. It is our only hope to catch him, to stop him from doing this to other small packs.” Zane’s voice was harsh. “Do you need a mirror? I’ll go back and get it.”

Zane’s words and Essie’s sob caught Nyall off-guard, but he stayed out in the hall where Zane had told him to keep watch. As they argued, Nyall walked back out to the front door and surveyed the cliffs.

“Stop it, Zane.”

There was the sound of something being ripped off the wall in the water closet adjacent to the Alpha’s office. “Do it.”

“Fine. But don’t leave me with him too long.” Essie sounded resentful.

Zane walked out and closed the door. “Let’s check the rest of the houses.”

The ripples from the July heat made the desertscape play tricks on his eyes. The heat was overwhelming, and his wolf hated it, but Zane seemed perfectly comfortable in the sweltering air. As they walked up the steps of the pack house, Essie rushed past him and her wolf leapt from the porch into the heat, running hard toward the road out of the canyon.

“She says the Sunwolf and his witches came in the afternoon.” Zane revealed, his mouth pressed in a thin line. “They might have been trying to catch the two Alphas together. We need to figure out who the other Alpha was and warn him.”

Bowing his head, Nyall made himself ask, “Is the Sunwolf Essie’s true?”

Zane’s teeth made a grinding sound as his jaw clenched. “Yes. Delilah has shown you only a glimpse of the horrors Esther has seen. But I will kill him before I let him hurt her and then she will have to choose between Ketsu and I.”

Raising an eyebrow, Nyall inquired, “And what will the other do when she chooses one of ye?”

Zane looked at him with hard eyes, “One will be her choice mate and the other will spend the rest of his life protecting her sister.” Then Zane leaped from the porch with cat-like grace, running in his skin after Essie’s wolf.

Nyall inhaled deeply, in the dry desert air. He could smell the sweet scent of the waterfall and the acrid stench of witchcraft. His heart grieved for the wolves of a pack he never met. It made him sick to know what had happened to them. He didn’t want to be monarch, but he vowed he would do everything in his power to stop the Sunwolf and his evil god. Nyall’s wolf whined about running through the heat but he hurried to follow Essie and Zane. Their bikes were gone when he got to the highway so, he dressed and rode alone back to the Lone Mine pack.

The Pack Beta’s sister was waiting when he arrived, she nodded to him in a sad way. Heather was mate-lost too. They had become friends over the last few days while he was training warriors of the small pack. She was so different from Delilah and he found himself enjoying the companionship of another mate-lost wolf. They spent many nights just sitting and talking. Heather, or Mistress Heather as she preferred to be called, was beautiful but sadly self-harming, and had turned her need to suffer pain into a business that helped support her brother and their Alpha’s fledgling pack. She worked as a high-end madame and Dominatrix or Submissive in her own brothel in an exclusive neighborhood outside the city.

“Woods found something, the coven in Vegas is missing and there is a bounty for their location or any vampire who is caught alive.”

Nyall frowned. “What does Wanderer Essie and Wanderer Zane think?”

Heather shrugged, “They are going to set up a meeting to try and get a lead on the Sunwolf.” She eyed Nyall, “Why are we saving the vampires?”

“Because the Delphi said to.” He almost growled, he still wasn’t sure exactly why they were taking such risk for a species who had isolated themselves since the dark ages.

Heather rolled her eyes. “So, I was asked to give you the delivered clothes to come with us.”

“I have clothes,” He groaned. He really hated the city.

“Not club clothes, oh and I am supposed to cut your hair. You’re a college body builder, don’t forget the life story Zane wrote for you.”

He followed her into the cool interior of the pack house. She opened a small room and had him sit down in a stylist chair.

Rolling his eyes, Nyall pulled out his ponytail band. “Lots of guys have long hair.”

She grinned, running her fingers through his hair, “Lots of guys don’t make Chris Helmsworth look like a poser as Thor. Seriously, Nyall, you got a surreal demi-god vibe with your hair like that.” Heather spritzed his golden shoulder-length locks and pulled them back. “Soooo, do you have a preference or dealer’s choice?”

“Whatever ye like,” he sighed as she began to cut his hair.

There was something about the way he felt when she touched him that made his wolf curious. They were friends, they had potential, not like he and… Nyall stopped the thought before it finished. He refused to even continue that. He was lonely, his wolf was lonely, and being around Zane and Essie who could barely keep their hands off each other, reminded him of all he and Moira had never had the chance to share.

“You’re thinking about her,” Heather breathed out quietly and she leaned down. Her cleavage was only inches from his face as she trimmed the sides of his head.

Nyall’s eyes were immediately drawn to a fading red welt. He reached up and pushed her blouse open, revealing her bruised left breast. Wolves healed fast but sometimes one of her clients left marks that took more time to heal. Injuries that would incapacitate or kill a human. “Ye shouldn’t let them abuse ye. Pain will not bring your mate back.”

“Says the wolf who trains until he can barely stand then runs until he collapses,” She retorted, pulling away. She pulled her blouse close, but the thin silk didn’t disguise the reaction her body had to his touch. She stepped back and turned him toward the mirror. He looked like all the other young men he had seen in the city.

“Thank ye, Heather.”

She turned to sweep up the mounds of golden hair from the floor, “We’re leaving at 8PM, eat and get some sleep. I left the clothes on your bed.”

Nyall stood up and then hugged her from behind so suddenly she squeaked in surprise. “Ye are worth more than the bruises and lashes.”

Heather bowed her head, “Nothing pays better than what I do. I learn things, hear things.” She turned to face him, her chocolate to honey ombre waves cascaded over his bare arm like silk. “Who do you think found out about the bounty on vampires?”

Her dark eyes searched his. “There are humans who know about us, they are often violent criminals, or from the human military. They like it rough, and they pay well. I have spent the last five years building up the trust of my clientele. I know you don’t approve of any abuse toward a female, but you need to realize some of us like it.”

His growl vibrated them both, “No one should enjoy being in pain. Don’t any of them treat ye gently as a female should be treated?”

“Physical pain makes me feel my soul’s pain less. Maybe, someday, I’ll let you treat me gently, but I let them hurt me, so they can deal with their own issues and not hurt someone they love. My body is just the canvas which they can paint their anger and frustration on, and no one will miss me if one goes too far.”

She pushed him away and walked out. “You’re my friend but it’s my choice, Nyall. Don’t forget that, and shave off your beard.”